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With tightening supplies of non renewable energy and rising costs, DFAM challenges you to take advantage of easily accessible means to cut back on your monthly power usage. See how much energy you can save and help reduce your carbon footprint at the same time.
Conserving Electricity: There are some simple and very affordable steps you can take today to reduce your household's electricity consumption:
1. Change your bulbs to CFBs. Do this even if you do nothing else ever to save the planet. Compact fluorescent bulbs (CFBs) are the easiest and cheapest way to green your home - and trim your electric bill. Most CFBs use only one-quarter the energy of a regular incandescent bulb. According to Environmental Defense.org, switching just five 60-watt incandescent bulbs to comparable CFBs with 10,000-hour life spans will save $270 over the life of the bulbs (about $100 a year) and prevent 3,346 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere. If every U.S. household did so, says National Geographic's Green Guide, it would prevent the release of as much greenhouse gas as removing 8 million cars from the road for a year. Some new CFBs can be dimmed and come in warm white light nearly indistinguishable from regular bulbs. For a chart that calculates how much you'll save by switching to CFBs, go to http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=602. Enter FPL's price of 0.12 cents per kilowatt hour in the chart. CFBs contain a very small amount of mercury (much less in comparison with an incandescent bulb of equivalent wattage over the life of the bulb) and, therefore, must be disposed of responsibly. For information on CFBs and mercury, and how to dispose of CFBs safely, click on this link .
2. Keep your thermostat at 78 degrees or warmer and set on auto when at home. Set it to 82 degrees when you're away for several hours or more. Keeping thermostats set too low is one of the most common environmental sins homeowners commit, said Terry Yeager, who manages FPL's BuildSmart green building program. 'If it's 90 or 95 degrees outside and the air-conditioner is set at 74, the unit is never really going to shut off. It's going to try to get that house to 74 but its never going to do it.' A 78 degree setting will allow the air-conditioner to cycle on and off, saving energy and money.
3. Buy a programmable thermostat you can set to respond to your daily activities. It will raise temperatures when you leave for work, cool down the house just before you arrive home at night and shave $100 a year from your electric bill.
4. Clean your A/C filters at least every month. A clogged filter makes your unit work harder.
5. Keep your refrigerator running as efficiently as possible. Clean its coils at least two times per year with a coil brush. These brushes are in the shape of large pipe cleaners and are available at many retail home appliance and hardware stores. Be sure to unplug your refrigerator first to avoid any chance of electric shock.
6. Check your ducts. For $30 and $15 for additional air handlers, FPL will check your air conditioning ducts for leaks and pay up to $154 toward repairs.
7. Turn off fans when you leave a room. A constantly-running ceiling fan coats about $7 dollars a month to operate, according to FPL.
8. Don't let cool air slip through the cracks. Add weather-stripping around doors and caulk leaky windows to keep your expensively-cooled air where it belongs. If you have a fireplace, make sure the flue is closed.
9. Make shade by planting trees on the west side of the house.
10. Use solar outdoor lights. To illuminate walkways and patios. Some of the LED lighting that is readily available today does an adequate job, is extremely energy efficient and uses bulbs that are rated at 100,000 hours of use.
11. Install window film. Low 'E' or low-emissions film reduces heat gain inside a home and consequently, electric bills. (You will still need shutters or impact-resistant windows, however. No window film meets the Florida Building Code for hurricane protection.)
12. Have an energy audit. Take FPL's free on-line energy survey at http://www.fpl.com/ to determine where you can save money on your electric bill.
13. Walk or bike for at least two trips a week. Avoid heat stroke by doing it early in the morning or in the evening. Buy a rear "rat trap" rack for your bicycle along with some panniers or baskets to put your groceries in. There's no nicer feeling once you've found a nice way to cycle to your local grocery store and you'll look like a real European as you ride home with your baguette sticking out of your bag. The bag also eliminates the need for plastic grocery bags. Cycling is a great way to stay in shape and reduce stress.
Saving Water: a tremendous amount of energy goes into moving water around via pumps, etc., not to mention that water is becoming scarcer by the day.
1. Install low-flow shower heads and faucet aerators. Install low-flow shower heads and faucet aerators. Doing both can save up to 7,800 gallons of water per year in a typical household.
2. Shut down the pump. Run your pool pump no more than six hours a day during the summer; less in winter. Consider downsizing your pool pump motor. A 1 horsepower motor might be all you need to do the job and you'll not only save electricity, but your new pump should run with much less noise. A pool that is 15 feet wide by 30 feet long by an average 4.5 feet deep holds about 15,000 gallons of water. You need to circulate the entire volume of your pool's water each day in order to filter and disinfect it. A 1 horsepower motor pumps about 60 gallons per minute requiring just 4.5 hours to circulate all your pool water. When my old pool pump motor burned out about a month ago, I was shocked to find out that it was rated at 2 horsepower. I replaced it with a 1 horsepower model and have been completely satisfied with the job it does and it is whisper quiet compared with the old one.
3. Use drip irrigation. When possible instead of sprinkler fixtures and use native grasses and plants that are drought resistant. For those of you with very little grass to cut, consider doing it the old-fashioned way by using a push lawnmower. I got mine at Sears six years ago for about $100. I can't tell you how many cars slow down and comment when I'm out there pushing my lawnmower around. No noise, no belching smoke and carbon emissions, and best of all, no tanks of gas and costly maintenance to worry about. That's one less machine in my life!
Kitchen/Baths/Laundry:
1. Clean green. Commercial cleaning products are convenient, but contain a variety of toxic substances. Environmentally friendly products are expensive. Here are recipes to make your own much cheaper products:
- Mildew remover: Make a paste of baking soda and water. Scrub with an old toothbrush, then rinse.
- Toilet cleaner: 1 cup borax and 1/4 cup white vinegar. Let sit for a few hours then brush.
- Glass cleaner: water and white vinegar in a spray bottle
- Scouring powder: baking soda. Add lemon juice for stains.
- For grease: Bon Ami powder or make a solution of 1/2 teaspoon washing soda, 2 tablespoons white vinegar, 1/4 teaspoon liquid soap and 2 cups hot water in a spray bottle.
2. Dry clothes outside. Sunshine is nature's own dryer. Drying a single load keeps 3.35 pounds of CO2 from the atmosphere. CO2 is the number one greenhouse gas emitter in the US. It accounts for 82% of the emissions responsible for global warming and climate change. For a high quality dryer that's made by a country that has dried its clothes outside for centuries, try the Irish "Breezecatcher (http://www.breezecatcher.co.uk/).
3. Use the right plastic. Not all plastic wrap is created equal. Some, such as Reynolds Wrap, are made from PVC, which contains thalates, a substance implicated in hormone changes in children. Opt for Glad Cling or Saran Cling Plus, Ziploc bags, Glad sandwich bags, Hefty OneZip bags.
4. Rough it with recycled toilet paper. And paper towels. No, it's not as soft. Yes, it's better for the planet since purchasing recycled products encourages the manufacture of recycled products.
5. Buy local, buy seasonally. Get the South Carolina peaches instead of the ones from California, which require far more energy to ship to us. Buy Florida tomatoes instead of the hydroponic types from Canada. During our winter growing season, buy from local farmers. Remember, it requires a lot of fuel to give us apples in early summer and raspberries in January.
More Expensive, But Ultimately Cost-Saving Steps:
1. Replace an old air-conditioner with a new unit with a SEER rating of at least 15. (The higher the rating, the more efficient the unit.) If your A/C is 20 years old, a new energy-savings unit could save 20 to 30 percent of your air-conditioning costs. FPL has a rebate program that will refund part of the cost of a new energy-efficient air-conditioner.
2. Buy Energy Star appliances. Each super-efficient, energy-sipping new appliance will save up to $50 a year on utility bills. Miami-Dade Water and Sewer offers a $150 rebate for TIER 3 Energy Efficient Washing Machine Purchases.
3. Add ceiling insulation. Bringing your house up to at least an R-19 rating, which is Florida code, can save as much as $112 per year. For even lower bills, go up to an R-30 rating. FPL has a list of approved insulation installers and a rebate program. Go to http://www.fpl.com/.
4. Install a tank-less water heater. These small 'on-demand' wall units are now readily available. They heat water only when it's needed and use half the energy of conventional heaters. Since water isn't heated until the faucet is turned on, these can waste water unless a special pump system is also installed. Priced at about $650 to $1,000.
5. Go solar for hot water. Systems can cost as much as $4000, but the State of Florida gives you a rebate check for $500 and you can take 30% of the cost off your taxes for a total savings of $1,700. For more information on Florida's "Solar Incentives" program, go to: http://www.dep.state.fl.us/energy/energyact/solar.htm.
6. Kick the energy addiction entirely and go all solar. The efficiency of photovoltaics keeps going up while the cost goes down. The State of Florida is offering a rebate program of up to $20,000 through June 30, 2010 assuming the system meets state requirements. For further information, visit the Florida Department of Environmental Protection at: http://www.dep.state.fl.us/energy/energyact/solar.htm.
7. Solar rentals. If the up front costs are too high, consider renting a solar system. For information on solar rentals, go to the following website: http://renu.citizenre.com/
Local Green Links:
Green Energy Products located on Miami Beach
Dream in Green local non-profit with great information and links
Citizens for a Better South Florida
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